Jen Beagin
Big Swiss
This offbeat novel combines the heart and wit of Sorrow and Bliss with the joy and touch of surrealism in Schitts Creek. It is the funniest book you will read in 2023.
Allen & Unwin, 2023
Big Swiss. That's Greta's nickname for her - she is tall, and she is from Switzerland. Greta can see her now: dressed top to toe in white, that adorable gap between her two front teeth, her penetrating blue eyes. She's a head-turner: including the heads of infants and dogs.
Well that's how Greta imagines seeing her; they haven't actually ever met in person. Nor has Greta actually ever been to Switzerland.
Greta and Big Swiss are not in the same room, or even the same building. Greta is miles away, sitting at a desk in her own house, wearing only headphones, fingerless gloves, a kimono, and legwarmers, transcribing this disembodied voice.
What Greta doesn't know is that she's about to bump into Big Swiss in the local dog park. A new - and not entirely honest - relationship is going to be born.
A relationship that will transform both of their lives. . .
About the Author
Big Swiss is Jen Beagin’s third novel. Pretend I'm Dead and Vacuum in the Dark(shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize) were published by Scribner US and Oneworld in the UK to wide critical acclaim. Jen Beagin holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine. In 2017, she was awarded a prestigious Whiting Award for her debut novel Pretend I'm Dead. She lives in New York.